My Experience on the Academic Job Market
It’s almost that time of year again—yes, it’s academic job search time. There’s loads of job market advice out there (as you most certainly know), and now I suppose I’m throwing my hat into the advice ring as well. I thought I’d discuss my personal job market experience because I think it deviates in some ways from the standard experience. Before we dive in, however, I want to underscore the precarity of the job market and acknowledge the university’s role in contributing to the exploitative and extractive environment that adjuncts and non-tenured college instructors face. The precariat makes up most of the academy’s scholars and educators, and we (tenured and tenure-line scholars, administration) have continuously failed to address the demands of these essential educators.
Preparing for the Oral Exam
The requirements and structure of the oral examination varies from institution to institution. At my institution, the exam required the examinee to develop three lists of readings, each list reflecting a specific topic in an area of research. This area of research is usually the foundation of your dissertation topic. If this structure resembles the exam you will prepare for, perhaps this post can be of some help to you.
A Teaching Playlist
Music is so important for a lot of us—it can help to relax us when we are feeling stressed, it can pick us up when we need some lift, it—wait. I don’t think I need to sell music. You get it. Anyway, if you’re into it, you might consider putting together a playlist for your class(es). It can set the tone for the day and be a welcoming pedagogical gesture for your students. You might curate a playlist that corresponds to different parts of the class. Maybe you have a playlist you play for the first five minutes of class. Perhaps you play some more high-energy music mid-class after an in-depth explainer on the final essay assignment. Finally, perhaps you have a closing playlist. For some inspo, below are some songs I chose from various instrumental playlists I found on Apple Music (Spotify also has similar playlists).
A Teaching Ritual
I have written about engaging ritual work in teaching here, but I wanted to post a simpler ritual exercise here. I also discuss ritual in my scholarly research—rituals are simply habits. Because we all perform rote tasks everyday, we all have access to ritual—it isn’t a skill one needs to learn. We just need to pay more attention to the rituals (habits) we perform regularly to appreciate their importance.
Down The Strange and Winding Road to the Ph.D
A grad student at a friend’s get-together recently asked me how I finished my doctoral program. I don’t think I gave them the response they were looking for. The truth is, there’s no singular way that one finishes a doctorate—however, there is a lot of luck involved.
Take-aways from the TLC’s 2022 Teach @ CUNY Seminar
I recently co-facilitated an online summer teaching seminar for CUNY graduate students, most of whom will be teaching for the first time in the fall. What came out of the many conversations we had with the seminar participants was a desire to feel comfortable grading, assessing, and analyzing student work. While responding to participant concerns, I began thinking of a general set of questions for instructors to consider when thinking about grading and evaluation strategies. Here’s what I came up with: